It is generally known that so-called lacquering apparatuses are used for the coating of workpieces, in particular with paint or lacquers. Suitable lacquering apparatuses are, for example, lacquering robots which are provided with a lacquer atomizer. Furthermore, for example, a plurality of lacquering atomizers, which are arranged in the form of an opening such that they cannot move with respect to one another and through which opening an object to be lacquered can be moved may, for example, also be regarded as a lacquering apparatus.
A lacquering robot guides the lacquering atomizer during the coating process in accordance with the program along a predetermined movement path at a predetermined speed around the workpiece to be coated, with respective atomizer parameters normally being preset for the various sections of the movement path, for the lacquering atomizer.
A lacquering robot normally has six degrees of freedom of movement and its working area is restricted to an area of 2 m to 3 m around its base. By way of example, a robot such as this can be used to lacquer relatively small workpieces such as bumper bars for automobile bodyworks, without any relative movement of the robot base with respect to the workpiece.
In order to lacquer larger workpieces, such as automobile bodyworks, it is normal practice to provide a robot such as this with a seventh degree of freedom of movement by mounting it on a movement rail associated with it, in which case all seven degrees of freedom of movement are generally taken into account completely for control of the robot. A robot such as this can now be moved along the object to be lacquered, along the movement rail of the robot, which in the automobile field typically has a length of 4 m to 10 m.
Particularly in the case of elongated workpieces, this results in a corresponding length of the movement rail of a robot or of a lacquering apparatus.